This invention relates to combination lighting/information units, and particularly to lighting/information units for use in hospital corridors, and to a corridor lighting system incorporating such units.
Corridors in hospitals, clinics and similar medical facilities are commonly lighted by ceiling-mounted fluorescent lamps. Although the lamps are usually covered by some type of diffuser or shield, the result is a relatively harsh form of lighting, with discomfort glare and disability veiling glare.
At the same time, hospital room numbers and other room identifiers (e.g, department name, doctor name, or patient name, depending on the type of room or office) are provided on signs mounted on the room doors or on the walls adjacent the doors. Those signs may be difficult to read under emergency lighting conditions. In particular, hospital emergency power systems are generally not sufficient to light all of the ceiling lamps in a corridor. Therefore, in case of a failure of the normal electrical power supply system, whether limited to the hospital or more widespread, only a fraction of the lamps are energized by the emergency power system, leaving relatively long stretches of corridor with little illumination. Alternatively, incandescent wall-mounted emergency lights may be provided, also at relatively infrequent locations.
Finally, patients medical charts are kept by different hospitals in a number of different places. One common place to keep the chart is on a hook at the foot of the patient's bed. In that case, the physician is unable to study the chart before entering the room, and must stand in the room reviewing the chart, possibly disturbing the patient and visitors unnecessarily. Alternatively, the chart could be kept outside the room, hanging on a hook on the door or wall, or in a pocket attached to the wall. However, the chart, or the pocket, is then subject to being knocked down by passersby in the corridor.
Thus, it would be desirable to be able to provide a hospital corridor lighting system that provides plentiful, comfortable, indirect lighting.
It would also be desirable to be able to provide secure patient chart storage that allows a physician to retrieve and study a patient's chart before entering the room.
It would further be desirable to be able to provide a room identification marker that is legible even under emergency lighting conditions.
It would still further be desirable to be able to provide a better distribution of emergency lighting in hospital corridors.